ORT was established in Britain in 1921. One of the highlights of British ORT’s (now ORT UK’s) history was the Jubilee Fundraising Dinner at the Savoy Hotel in 1930. The Guest of Honour was Albert Einstein, and sharing the platform with him were George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, the Chief Rabbi, Dr Hertz, with Lord Rothschild presiding. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, British ORT was active both in fund raising and in various special projects such as assisting the Vilna Technicum, ORT’s flagship technical institute in Vilnius.

In 1937 an ORT school was established in Berlin to provide a technical education for Jewish boys excluded from state schools by the Nazis. Because of the increasingly precarious position of Jews in Nazi Germany, ownership of the school buildings and equipment was registered under British ORT.

With the war fast approaching, British ORT arranged to transfer the school to England. Over 100 students and several teachers arrived in England at the end of August 1939 and a new school was established in Leeds to carry on the work and training that had begun in Berlin. It continued to operate until 1942. This photograph shows some of the students in front of the school c.1940.

Find out more about ORT’s history in England and throughout the world here: https://ortarchive.ort.org/browse-regions/western-europe/ort-in-britain

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World ORT Archive

Commercial | Cultural | Family History | Holocaust | Jewish Life | Local HistoryOnline

The World ORT Archive (WOA) exists to preserve the historical record of World ORT’s activities and to place these activities into the context of contemporary Jewish History.

This photo, from AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive, shows chocolatier Elena Lederman with actress Elizabeth Taylor, one of her celebrity clients. Elena says of this photo: “I gave her a box of chocolates at the studio and they all fell out.”

Born in Milan to parents from Istanbul, Elena and her family moved to Belgium, where Elena worked as salesperson in Bon Marché. Elena married in 1940 and her son was born in 1942. They survived the war with the help of the Belgium underground, hiding in forests and woods near Brussels. She came to the UK in 1955 and opened a chocolate business, Elena Chocolates, one of the first people in the UK to import Belgium chocolates. These delicacies found favour with a wide variety of celebrity clients, including the Royal family. Here is an excerpt from Elena’s AJR Refugee Voices interview on how she came to start her business:

“I always worked, because it was the only way to survive, which I did. I got quite a good background in that respect. I used to work in a shoe-shop, and I liked the idea to have shoes made to measure, so when I had the shop, the first time I made shoes made to measure, and I used to make shoes for the Palladium, boots, I got to do very, very well. In the shop where I find in Edgware. And after that my husband said, why don’t you do those very special chocolates from Belgium, why don’t you do that? Ah, I said, “No.” He said, “Come on, you’ll do it.” And I started. And for nearly twenty years, I introduced the Belgian chocolates, they were really fresh chocolates, which we collected every week by van, every Monday.”

This is a photo of Elena in her shop with a box with feathers made specially for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Elena later took this box to Buckingham Palace:

According to Elena, here is how the Royal Family became her customers:

“I was the first lady who brought fresh chocolates – of course now they got many – but at the time, they didn’t know what it means to choose the chocolate and fresh cream, they didn’t know. People bought boxes which are all ready, which are – So it was quite a big job, but it was very, very exciting also, because I managed to do that very, very well. And when I first opened the shop, very, very beautiful, I thought – I had an idea. So I took a box with me and I went to Scotland Yard. That day in Scotland Yard, they were just advertising for new staff, you know, for secretaries, and I went in the queue.   

And when I got in the queue, my turn arrived, they said, “What job do you want?” “Well,” I said, “I don’t come for a job, I want to see the Queen”. I must tell you; at that particular time they thought there is something not right with me. Anyway, they called somebody, and I went to talk to him, and I said, I just started a new business, it’s something which has never been in England before, and I feel the First Lady should be able to taste them, as it’s so new. He said,   “Hold on, listen to that.” I said, “God, what are they going to do?” And I’m very natural, I don’t do anything sophisticated, it’s just me, you know. So he came and said, “You’re going to tell me you want to see Her Majesty the Queen?” – “Well”, I said, “yes, I would like her to taste the chocolate” and here is the box,. I gave it to him, he came again, and he said, “Yes, Mrs Lederman, at the [indistinct] the Queen‘s going to see you tomorrow morning, at 9 o’clock in the morning at Buckingham Palace.”

So of course, the following morning I went to Buckingham Palace, and the Master of Ceremonies was there, and I made then a much more beautiful box, very beautiful, and I went in, and he said, “Come in” and they served me tea, and he said, “Is that the chocolate?” “Yes.” And so he said, “Well, I’m going to ask you a favour. Would you take one first?” I had to eat one. And in a joke I said, “Well, I know the one which is not poisoned, so I’m having that one.” I made it in a very natural way. And he went, then he came back, and he said, “Her Majesty the Queen is very delighted with those chocolates, and we are going to write to you. And who gave you the idea to come?” “Well,” I said, “Nobody, but I guessed, it’s something completely new, and I’m in England not very long, but I’m very fond of England and all that, and I thought she should have a taste.”

And do you know, from that time, she used to go to Harrods, just to get the white chocolate, and then the Queen Mother – I used to go to the Queen Mother nearly once a month. And I used to ring the bell, and then one day they said, “Would you come up?” And I went up to them, and my husband was with me but he could not come, he had to wait downstairs, so I went up with them, I always remember, I saw – Lady Diana’s grandmother used to be at the Court there, and it was a magnificent room. They gave me some tea, and I said to them – Lady Diana was going to get married with Prince Charles at the time and I made up a velvet box, very big, with their photo, and chocolate, and I said, “Will you allow me to present it to them?” And they said, “Certainly”, we know what it’s all about, yes of course you can, we will be very delighted, and she wanted to know all my life story, and she wanted to know all about the war, all what I went through, and I sat there for an hour.

My husband was worried what they do to me. You know he got a little bit worried, and they had a camera in the corner obviously, you must understand, and from that time really, whenever there was something special I used to send some chocolate, or I used to go there, when Lady Diana had her first baby I went to the maternity at the Portman, and there were coming a lot of people, coming, naturally with flowers, and as I went to the door, they said, Well, you can’t go in any more, it’s far too many. Prince Charles came out, and he said, “That lady can go too”, and immediately I went in with a basket. I used to make such beautiful things; I must show you some photos. I used to make such fantastic things.“

Read more about Elena here.

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AJR Refugee Voices

Family History | Holocaust | ImmigrationOnly online

AJR Refugee Voices is a digital archive created by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) and holds Holocaust survivor and refugee testimony. […]

This lovely photo, from the AJR Refugee Voices Archive, shows Ruth Danson, third from left, and her friends Ursel, Hanni Salomon, Erika Loebl, Dudu, Lore Feibuss in the Bluebell Wood, Bunce Court School, in 1939. Ruth says: “Beautiful Bunce Court. Oh it was beautiful there!”

Ruth came to Britain with her parents from Breslau to escape Nazi persecution in 1939. Shortly afterwards her parents were interned and Ruth was sent to Bunce Court School in Otterden, Kent. This was a pioneering school founded by Anna Essinger and two of her sisters in the Swabian town of Herrlingen in 1926. It began as an adjunct to the children’s home founded by Essinger’s sister Klara in 1912. In 1925, as her own children and many of the children in care came of school age, she got the idea to turn the orphanage into a boarding school. Landschulheim Herrlingen opened on 1 May 1926 as a private boarding school with 18 children ranging in age from 6 to 12. Anna Essinger became head of the school and her sister Paula, a trained nurse, became the school nurse and its housekeeper.

Landschulheim Herrlingen was non-denominational, accepting children from any faith, and coeducational. Having been influenced by progressive education in the United States, Essinger ran the school accordingly. The primary grades were taught using the Montessori method. Teachers were to set an example in “learning, laughing, loving and living” and the motto for the school was “Boys and girls learn to be inquisitive, curious and independent and to find things out themselves. All work is to encourage critical thinking.” Individual work was encouraged. There was no testing of skills or attainment

After Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party seized power in January 1933, and with antisemitism on the rise, the school became increasingly Jewish, as some parents bowed to pressure to boycott Jewish institutions and Jewish parents found it increasingly difficult to find placement for their children. In April 1933, when all public buildings were ordered to fly the Nazi flag and swastika, Essinger planned a day-long outing for her school, leaving the flag to fly over an empty building, a symbolic gesture, according to a nephew. Afterwards, Essinger and the school were denounced and the school came under Nazi scrutiny with a recommendation to install a school inspector at the school. In May 1933, Essinger was informed that her oldest pupils would not be allowed to take the tests for the abitur, the school-leaving certificate needed to pursue a university education, and most non-Jewish parents withdrew their children from the school.

Essinger realised that Germany was no longer a hospitable place for her school and sought to relocate it in a more secure environment abroad. She first sought a new location in Switzerland, then in the Netherlands and finally, in England, where she found an old manor house dating from 1547 in Otterden, near Faversham in Kent. The house is called Bunce Court, after the family that owned the property in the 17th century. Essinger raised funds in England, primarily from Quakers, initially to rent and later, to purchase Bunce Court. She informed the parents of her desire to move the school to England and received permission to take 65 children with her. The children all went home for summer vacation, not knowing they were leaving Landschulheim Herrlingen for the last time.

Essinger and her students arrived in the UK in summer 1933. English people were unaware of what was taking place in Germany and did not understand why Essinger and the school had left Germany. The new school was makeshift and finances meagre, causing the English education inspectors to be initially unfavourable toward the school. Within a year or two, however, enough improvements had been made that they came to realise the school was viable and unique. In October 1937, there were 68 pupils enrolled at Bunce Court, 41 were boys and 27 were girls. Of the 68, all but three were boarders and all but 12 were foreign-born. By this time, the school had won the respect of the authorities. After three days spent visiting Bunce Court in 1937, inspectors from the British government’s Ministry of Education reported their amazement “at what could be achieved in teaching with limited facilities” and that they were “convinced it was the personality, enthusiasm and interest of teachers rather than their teaching ‘apparatus’ that made the school work competently”.

Bunce Court was home, so that even after finishing their education, some pupils would stay on for a number of months, living at the school while working elsewhere, their wages largely going for their upkeep. After Kristallnacht, the United Kingdom agreed to accept 10,000 German children in Kindertransports and Bunce Court took in as many of the refugees as possible. These included Ruth and her friends, and other interviewees from AJR Refugee Voices, including immunologist Leslie Brent, who shared this photo of the school ca 1948:

Bunce Court became a haven for German and Austrian refugees in Britain during and after the war. For many children now without families it became their family and their home, a place to stay during holidays even after their graduation. Well-known alumni include the painter Frank Auerbach. The last children to come to Bunce Court were orphaned Nazi concentration camp survivors who no longer knew what normal life was like. One such boy was Sidney Finkel, born Sevek Finkelstein in Poland, who survived the Piotrkow ghetto, deportation to a slave labour camp, separation from his family and imprisonment at Czestochowa, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt concentration camps. He arrived in England in August 1945 at the age of 14 and, along with 10 other Polish boys, was sent to Bunce Court. Traumatised, he and the others were treated with love and care. In his 2006 memoir, Sevek and the Holocaust: The Boy Who Refused to Die, he said his two years at Bunce Court “turned me back into a human being.”

Ruth graduated from Bunce Court and returned to London to be with her parents. You can read more about her here.

Much of the text of this story was adapted from Bunce Court’s Wikipedia entry.

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AJR Refugee Voices

Family History | Holocaust | ImmigrationOnly online

AJR Refugee Voices is a digital archive created by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) and holds Holocaust survivor and refugee testimony. […]

Kindertransport Travel Document

Kurt Marx’s Travel Document • AJR Refugee Voices Testimony Archive

Otto Deutsch Remembers Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht in Vienna recalled by Otto Deutsch • AJR Refugee Voices

This treasure is a portrait of Ronald Gibson, a photographer in Hackney working between 1952 and 1978. His photographs cover a range of family events and ceremonies and demonstrating the increasingly diverse population of Hackney. The incredible Gibson archive is part of Hackney Archives.

From his studio at 97 Lower Clapton Road, Gibson photographed hundreds of weddings, work parties, Bar Mitzvahs, outings and christenings, as well as individual and family portraits. He was a meticulous record-keeper and his archive of negatives stayed intact in a cupboard in the studio even after he sold his business on. By this work he became the accidental historian of Hackney in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, even though most of the people in the photographs have not yet been identified.

 Watch this short film by Hackney Museum to learn more:

Read more about Ronald Gibson’s archive, and see more of his fabulous photos, here.

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Hidden Treasures: Celebrating the documents, photos and artefacts in British archives that tell the story of Jews in Britain

Hackney Archives

Communal Records | Jewish Life | Local History | Religion | SocialPartially online

Hackney Archives holds the archives and local history collections of the London Borough of Hackney. Alongside the records of the local authority, […]

Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives

Commercial | Communal Records | Local HistoryPartially online

Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives is a local government archive in East London. It holds the records of a large […]

Brady Photographic Archive

Communal Records | Jewish Life | Local HistoryPartially online

The Brady Photographic Archive is an online photography, memorabilia, and oral histories archive documenting the history of the Brady Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs. Archive Description […]

This newspaper clipping, from the Jewish Chronicle via the Jewish History Association of South Wales, shows Elaina Rothman and Miri Lawrence preparing to be ordained at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood, London, in 1992.

Miri was a rabbinic student at Leo Baeck College and was ordained in 1992. She gained a Masters in Jewish Studies the same year. Miri was Rabbi at Ealing Liberal Synagogue from 1992-1995 and subsequently part-time/visiting Rabbi for a number of congregations.

Elaina Rothman first served as a student Rabbi for two years at the Cardiff New Synagogue in 1990. She went on to become Minister of the Synagogue, later retiring in 2002. She was a rabbinic student at Leo Baeck College and was ordained in 1992.

The Cardiff Reform Synagogue was founded in 1948 as the Cardiff New Synagogue. The following year, it became a constituent member of the Movement for Reform Judaism. Born in reaction against the more restrictive traditions of the Orthodox Judaism of Cardiff Hebrew Congregation, such as the prohibition of driving on the Sabbath and the ban on interfaith marriages, the new Synagogue appealed to the immigrants who had fled the war-torn Europe, where the Reform movement was already well-established. The congregation worships in a converted Methodist Chapel on Moira Terrace they acquired in 1952.

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Hidden Treasures: Celebrating the documents, photos and artefacts in British archives that tell the story of Jews in Britain

Jewish Chronicle Archive

Historical Documents | Jewish LifeOnly online

The Jewish Chronicle Archive is a digitised archive of the original print versions of the Jewish Chronicle newspaper going back over 175 […]

Jewish History Association of Wales / Cymdeithas Hanes Iddewig Cymru

Communal Records | Family History | Holocaust | Immigration | Jewish Life | Local HistoryPartially online

The Jewish History Association of Wales/Cymdeithas Hanes Iddewig Cymru (previously the Jewish History Association of South Wales/Cymdeithas Hanes Iddewig De Cymru) has created a […]

HRH The Queen Receives a Bible

HRH The Queen is presented with a Bible • The Jewish Chronicle Archive

For Sigd, here is an image from the Jewish Museum London showing Ethiopian Jews airlifted from Addis Ababa to Israel on May 24, 1991, as part of Operation Solomon. This covert operation involved 34 jumbo jets of the Israeli air force, hundreds of soldiers and the evacuation of 14,200 Jews. It was prompted by the worsening political situation in Ethiopia under the government of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

A Jewish community was first established in Ethiopia sometime after the destruction of the first temple in around 587 BCE. The origin of the Ethiopian Jews is unclear though most believe that they are the descendants of King Solomon and Queen Sheba. There are many theories though, some believing they are the lost tribe of Dan, while others believe they are the descendants of Christians who converted to Judaism. Throughout its history, the community has been referred to by numerous names like ‘’Falasha’’ which means ‘’stranger’’ which shows how their Christian neighbours viewed them as strangers in their land and ‘’Beta Israel’’ which literally means ‘’house of Israel’’. This name shows the community’s own deep connection to the Torah and their faith.

The Beta Israel exodus to Israel began in the early 1980s, after a coup in the Ethiopian government led to the death of 2500 Jews, directly followed by Ethiopia forbidding the practice of Judaism and the teaching of Hebrew. This was the start of various operations conducted by Israel to rescue the Beta Israel community.

Sigd is an Ethiopian Jewish festival celebrated 50 days after Yom Kippur. Sigd means “prostration” in Ge’ez, the ancient South Semitic language. Ethiopian Jews would go to a high mountain near Gonder in the north of the country, and pray that their religious commitment would merit them to return to Jerusalem. It is thought to be the date on which God first revealed himself to Moses.

Traditionally, members of the Beta Israel community fast on Sigd, read from their scriptures (which are called the Octateuch, the five books of Moses plus Joshua, Judges and Ruth), recite psalms, and pray for the rebuilding of the Temple. It is also a time for renewing the Israelite covenant with God. The fast ends mid-day with a feast and dancing. For this reason, though it is connected to Yom Kippur, it shares many resonances with Shavuot.

Since 2008, Sigd has been recognized as a state holiday in Israel. In Israel today, it is celebrated for an entire month leading up to the 29th of Cheshvan, and it is an opportunity to raise Ethiopian Jewish visibility and educate Israeli Jews about Beta Israel customs.

Text adapted from the Jewish Museum London, Wikipedia, the Jewish Chronicle and My Jewish Learning.

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Hidden Treasures: Celebrating the documents, photos and artefacts in British archives that tell the story of Jews in Britain

Jewish Museum London

Cultural | Religion | SocialOnly online

The Jewish Museum London is a public museum, with an archive collection of historic Jewish cultural, social and religious items. Archive Description […]

Sukkot in the Jewish Orphanage, Norwood

Children from the Jewish Orphanage, Norwood, celebrate Sukkot • Jewish Museum London

Rosh Hashanah Postcard

Rosh Hashanah postcard, Warsaw, late 1920s • Jewish Museum London

This powerful image, from the Wiener Holocaust Library, shows German Jew Ludwig Neumann soon after he was released from Dachau in 1938. During a time of increasing antisemitism, especially after Kristallnacht, many German Jewish men were sent to Dachau, which was set up by the Nazis in 1933, initially to hold Jews and political prisoners. Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other German concentration camps that followed. It was in the aftermath of Kristallnacht and such measures that concerted German and Austrian Jewish emigration to Britain and other countries began.

Ludwig Neumann was a German Jewish businessman who owned an industrial clothing company. As a result of anti-Jewish measures, he was forced to sell his factory in 1938 and was interned in Dachau for a number of weeks. He was released on the understanding that he would leave the country immediately, and travelled to Great Britain where he was briefly interned as an enemy alien. Following his release however, he served as an anti-aircraft gunner for the British. After the war, Neumann returned to Germany to try and re-establish the family business, but eventually came back to Britain where he held a number of posts as a production manager in the clothing industry.

Ludwig Neumann was also a keen amateur photographer and the Wiener Holocaust Library’s Ludwig Neumann collection holds many photographs from his travels in the Mediterranean and around the world in the early twentieth century, as well as in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Hidden Treasures: Celebrating the documents, photos and artefacts in British archives that tell the story of Jews in Britain

The Wiener Holocaust Library

Family History | HolocaustPartially online

The Wiener Holocaust Library is a London based private library and archive holding Holocaust records and donated family papers. Archive Description The […]

Juden Raus! Board Game

“History’s most infamous board game”
• The Wiener Holocaust Library